I wouldn't recommend any aspiring pilot to use MS FS as an aid to the PPL. Simply because you will get this nasty habit of looking at your instruments rather than on the visual horizon. - That's what VFR is all about. A FS like ELITE is a good aid for an instrument rating, but until then - don't bother! (I know, cause I've been there. Costed me at least 3 or 5 hours of ekstra flight during my PPL training).
That is very true. Unless you actually incorporate not looking at the instruments into your procedures. That means trimming. This is a good point because that is the one area where sims very nearly make themselves useless for PPL. Trimming in FS is a tricky excersise and can mastered but is obviously nothing like trimming a real P28/C152, which can be accomplished extremely quickly without looking at the instruments.